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September 2011, Daily News

Early Humans Were Skilled Deep-Sea Fishers 42,000 Years Ago

Thu, Nov 24, 2011

According to these researchers, archaic human sailors of East Timor knew what they were doing when it came to catching fish in the ocean deep.

Early Humans Were Skilled Deep-Sea Fishers 42,000 Years Ago

Scientists now know that archaic humans were crossing open water as long ago as 50,000 years ago.  Evidence discovered in Australia attests to it.  But less is known about their other capabilities as they related to the oceans, or deep, open bodies of water.

Now, researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests that at least some of these early sailors were adept deep-sea fishers. Excavating in the Jerimalai rock shelter on the east end of the island of Timor, Sue O'Connor and her colleagues have encountered the remains of large fish in association with fishing implements, including fish hooks fashioned out of bone. Approximately 50% of the fish remains were identified as pelagic, large fish like tuna that commonly dwell in the open oceans.  The remains date to about 42,000 years ago, definitively earlier, according to the researchers, than other similar tools found. Implements used for open-ocean fishing are said to be rare before about 12,000 years ago. 

While fishing itself is not necessarily thought to be a skill set that archaic humans acquired late in their evolutionary development, the practice of open-ocean or deep-sea fishing is known to require skills involving a higher level of planning and more complex fishing technology, capabilities that the researchers now suggest were acquired by humans earlier than previously thought.

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Many caves and rockshelters, such as Jerimalai shelter, are located in the uplifted Pleistocene reefal terraces at the east end of the island of Timor. [Image courtesy of Susan O'Connor]

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Jerimalai shelter during excavation. [Image courtesy of Susan O'Connor]

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Incomplete fish hook from Jerimalai shelter dated to ~11,000 cal BP [Image courtesy of Susan O'Connor]

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A complete shell fish hook from the Pleistocene levels of a cave site at the east end of Timor. This hook is made of Trochus shell and is dated to ~11,000 cal years BP [Image courtesy of Susan O'Connor]

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The detailed research report can be found in the November 25, 2011 issue of Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a nonprofit science society. 

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